E&OE
STARTS: 7:11AM
ENDS: 7:20AM
SALLY BRYANT:
The 2025 Federal Government has handed down the Budget, there is going to be a lot of analysis on what is in that Budget on ABC Radio and online throughout the day. I am always interested to hear what you think of measures like $17 billion in tax cuts – we have cheaper medicines, power relief and a boost for first-home buyers. I am also interested in hearing the thoughts from the Member for Riverina, Michael McCormack who is joining me this morning. Mr McCormack, how are you going?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Good Morning Sally, I am well thanks.
SALLY BRYANT:
What is your initial response to the 2025 Budget?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Well, I know you have just outlined some of the Budget measures which will help people, but indeed overall it is underwhelming. I know that John in his comments says it doesn’t matter what colour the Budget was, it matters what the colour of the press release is. Well, I actually would say that is not true, in a Coalition Budget we would have had funding for regional grants. In this Budget, there is no new funding for the Stronger Communities Program, Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program – which was put in place when I was Deputy Prime Minister. There is no Growing Regions funding and there is no Regional Precincts and Partnership Program. Now, the Riverina has benefited enormously from the funding of those programs in recent years under a Coalition Government and it is sad to say there is no funding for these programs in this Budget under this Labor Government. Worse than that, for small businesses and we have a lot of small businesses and farmers working hard across the Riverina – the Government has slashed the popular instant asset ride-off scheme for 2025-26. It was $20,000 and it was unlimited for a period under the Coalition Government, and it is gone, it is absolutely gone. We talk about a $150 rebate, well households in New South Wales are going to be paying an average of $328 more in New South Wales. So, on the one hand, they are giving money but on another, they are taking money.
SALLY BRYANT:
So, are there any measures in there that you do agree with?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Well, obviously there are some measures in the Budget – and every Government will put in little sweeteners but overall, you look at it $5 extra a week, that will buy a cup of coffee, some coffee shops won’t even get you that. When you get The Sydney Morning Herald saying: “The Government is uninspired and uninspiring this Budget fits it perfectly”, this is the summation from the analysis this morning from the SMH. You start to realise this is a pretty poor Budget, and it is. It is the Budget “that nobody wanted, and nobody will possibly get” The Sydney Morning Herald writes – it is possibly true because let’s hope that quite frankly from my point of view, we go to an election, and we change the Government.
SALLY BRYANT:
So, what would you have done differently if your government was handing down the Budget last night?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Well, we would have taken care of the 80,000 older Australians needing support in the home. There is no help to reduce waiting lists in that regard. Again, I say with the regional grants programs – we would have put money into that. The cost of the Murray Darling Basin is hidden, it has got NFP for the second Budget in a row, which means not for publication. So, you do not know how much Labor is going to spend. If Labor is re-elected it is going to continue to buy water back which takes valuable water out of our irrigation towns and that means that places such as Griffith, Leeton, Narrandera and west of the Riverina diminish in size because they don’t have that water. It is not just the irrigation farmers it is the entire community. I am really disappointed in those grants programs, our Councils are going to be so upset that they can’t have the money for aquatic centres, upgrades …
SALLY BRYANT:
Mr McCormack earlier in the Rural Report there was a call for more help to clean up the carp problem, it is probably not the most sexy topic in the cities but it is important for river health. What would you do?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Well, all sorts of things. We look after regional Australia, and I know in that regard we put money into the river system to make it healthier as far as the carp problem is concerned. But again, you look at this Budget and it is totally underwhelming particularly for the regions – and it is the regions who carried Australia through COVID-19. It was the regions who went out to work, everybody in the cities wanted to pull the doona up and pretend things weren’t happening. But indeed, the regions have continued to carry the nation through resources, through farming and it is the regions who have been neglected and left behind through this Budget.
SALLY BRYANT:
There is also a fight to stop the spread of fire ants and varroa mites, should we be spending more on biosecurity?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
You don’t waste money on biosecurity, whether it is fire ants, whether it is at our shipping ports, or whether it is indeed looking after our farmers. Indeed there was a biosecurity tax which meant our farmers were going to have to pay for their competitors biosecurity when the very items that were going to be placed alongside Australian-grown fresh items on our supermarket shelves were going to have to be competing with goods from overseas – and we were going to pay the biosecurity tax for them and our farmers were going to be slated for them. Now, thankfully that thanks to The Nationals’ has gone away. But again, biosecurity we can never understate and taken for granted.
SALLY BRYANT:
Michael McCormack thank you for your time.
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Anytime, Sally.